The History of Sacred Scripture

The Books of the Bible

Father David Jones

God speaks, humans hear, humans pass on the stories of encountering God (ORAL TRADITION). Next, as we evolved, we began to communicate using symbols that could be scratched or painted on to walls and materials. The Egyptians refine these scratches to a system of writing known as hieroglyphics. Don’t forget the story, Moses, who thought he was a privileged Egyptian, goes to the burning bush, God speaks to him and he writes down what God said.

The larger point is that as writing things down became the manner in which the human society intended to preserve important works for communication, God’s Word was at the top of the list of important things to know and keep. The collection of written books of scripture, God’s word, approved and accepted is called the CANON of SACRED SCRIPTURE.

The church has always been a major player in the art and care of documenting our history with God for accuracy, study and future generations.

Eventually, Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg invents a machine that becomes the printing press and “voila!” the bible becomes the number one best seller of all times and known as a book.

The Old Testament was recorded in Hebrew and Aramaic, spoken languages, then translated into Greek, the language of scholars. The Greek translation of the Old Testament is called the Septuagint.

The New Testament was written in Greek. As the church grew, the whole composition was translated into Latin.

The Latin translation is called the Vulgate.

Now the bible is published in more than 2000 languages. Thank God, each of them and all of us have to go back and make sure we are careful to choose a translation that is an accurate record of what GOD SAID, the authentic bible and the bottom line. We go back to the basics. We go back to the bible.

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